Women's Set-Aside is Still Months Away A new review to determine eligibility for the women’s business set-aside program will begin shortly, but implementation of the long-delayed program is still many months away. The Small Business Administration will spend $150,000 for a contractor to review its original study, said Daryl Hairston, deputy associate deputy administrator for government contracting and business development. He said SBA is “in the process of making the award.” One women’s business advocate said she was told the review would take about seven months. After the review is completed, it is likely to be several more months before regulations implementing the program are approved. The set-aside program was created by Congress more than two years ago, but has never been implemented, because SBA and the Office of Management and Budget were afraid it would not stand up in court, an SBA spokesman said last year. (SAA, 5/3/02) SBA Administrator Hector Barreto, in a February meeting with the National Association of Women Business Owners, said the program is “a priority” and promised to move ahead with a new study. (SAA, 2/21) The study is necessary to determine who qualifies for the set-aside program. Congress set up a two-tiered program: small firms owned by “economically disadvantaged” women will be eligible for set-aside contracts in industries where women are “underrepresented” in federal contracting; all women-owned small businesses will be eligible in industries where women are “substantially underrepresented.” SBA officials said the initial study, completed last spring, did not prove that women were being shut out of federal contracting because of discrimination, so the program might not withstand a legal challenge under the Supreme Court’s Adarand decision limiting affirmative action programs. “We are committed to doing (a study) that will pass all scrutiny,” Barreto said in February. “We need to make sure that we have the research to back it up.” The original study found women-owned firms were underrepresented in 66 of the 71 industries surveyed, according to a report by Democratic members of the House Small Business Committee. SBA has not released the study. Congress has set a goal of 5% of federal contract dollars for women-owned firms, but the government has never even reached half that.